REX favourite theme

[dallyborr 2]

Yeah, "Polluted city air" is quite good. Here is two more shoots, with "Touch of Smog" and "Dreary" sunset, with thunderstorm weather.

[gwillmot 31]

gwillmot, we are currently testing the service pack.

Yes, and I'm extremely grateful for that. I was just pointing out that a "favorite" theme could not be listed now as REX still did not perform well for many users.Keep up the good work and all will get sorted out.gwillmot

[Dillon 2,197]

Guys I've been flying around with the 'Touch of Smog' sky texture and I must admit so far it's the best option. Although I find is a little too smoggy on the horizon it beats out the other options. Next I think I'm going to try another option that was posted here and that's 'Polluted City Air' (that really sounds worse than 'Touch of Smog', oh well) and see how that works out.

I just want to amend this a little. When I say 'Best option' I'm talking in the confines of REX. I went back to my Activesky 6.5 sky textures as those give the best feel (especially with haze) as far as I can tell over the REX options.

[Dillon 2,197]

O.K. I've found a sky texture within REX I can really deal with and actually seems better that 'Polluted Air' and 'Touch of Smog'. Can you guys try the 'Tropics' sky texture and tell me what you think. I've flown with this sky color over Vegas and it looked fantastic. It's winter now so I did a flight from KMSP to KATL and it looked great in winter. All seasons this sky texture works so I'd like to see what you guys think. Here's a pic below on my way to KATL.

[SMaus 1]

I agree. But the sharp line at the horizon at higher flight levels annoys me a bit. If you set your visibility to, let's say 50 nm, and you have no or just a few clouds you'll get this awful line. ASA provides a nice set called "smooth horizon" or something like this. If you use that instead you'll get rid of this line. I haven't found anything similar in REX yet, but I'm still looking...

[Dillon 2,197]

I agree. But the sharp line at the horizon at higher flight levels annoys me a bit. If you set your visibility to, let's say 50 nm, and you have no or just a few clouds you'll get this awful line. ASA provides a nice set called "smooth horizon" or something like this. If you use that instead you'll get rid of this line. I haven't found anything similar in REX yet, but I'm still looking...

I let ASA (Active Sky Advanced) handle the visibility settings but I know what your talking about. I guess I'm on a quest to get the full REX experience on my PC comparable to the screenshots I've been seeing. It's kind of trial and error as most of REX's sky textures is just plain weird. I think they were shooting for an FSX type look in FS9 which is great and it works with the exception of the sky textures. 'Tropics' is really working out for the most part. Letting ASA set the weather including upper and lower visibility limits nullifies the effect your talking about. FS9 needs haze and the right sky texture to pull it off.For the record look at my screenshot above and you'll see behind the plane a clearing of the clouds. Using ASA it seems to be taking care of that horizon problem you mention. I never fly FS9 without ASA running in the background.

[red1 0]

I agree. But the sharp line at the horizon at higher flight levels annoys me a bit. If you set your visibility to, let's say 50 nm, and you have no or just a few clouds you'll get this awful line. ASA provides a nice set called "smooth horizon" or something like this. If you use that instead you'll get rid of this line. I haven't found anything similar in REX yet, but I'm still looking...

You don't need ASA for smooth horizons. Just search for it here at avsim. It's a standalone freeware texture set.

[dallyborr 2]

Most of the sky sets in REX, as i mentioned before, don't mach with screenshot in option menu. So, i guess, they come from FSX version. You must try all sky textures and see how it actually look. Well for me 80% of it, make my FS look like "Photoshoped". Only sky textures that are close to a "real deal", daytime one, is "Touch of Smog" and "Polluted City Air". Other one look more like "eye candy" stuff than the real sky.And, one more thing, environment mapping for water and plane is very bad. So for the plane i use Bananabob's envmap.bmp, and for those that are responsible for the water, that goes into scenery/world/texture, FS Elemental.Everything else is perfect! ( Don't count WX engine from REX in that "perfect", cause that "thing" don't deserve to be in REX at all )

[timest 472]

Hi dallyborrThere were a few items that during the decompression stages, corrupted some textures including some of the water environment files. It slipped by us immediately before release. This is fixed in the service pack we're testing now. The weather engine depiction and a multitude of other key items reported by our users are also fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused everyone, but I feel confident you will be happy with the outcome of the patch. Best regards, and Happy Holiday's to everyone!Tim

[SMaus 1]

My fault... I didn't mean ASA, I thought of its predecessor with loads of skysets included. I'm using ASA as well, upper vis limit 50 nm, but nevertheless I get this darn line together with "Tropics" sky texture. Not a big deal if ASA provides the "correct" weather. But just yesterday when I tried out Dillon's suggestion my first thought was "well, not bad"... All of a sudden - sharp horizon.The freeware textures for soft horizons are really good. Especially for dawn and dusk.

[dallyborr 2]

Hi dallyborrThere were a few items that during the decompression stages, corrupted some textures including some of the water environment files. It slipped by us immediately before release. This is fixed in the service pack we're testing now. The weather engine depiction and a multitude of other key items reported by our users are also fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused everyone, but I feel confident you will be happy with the outcome of the patch. Best regards, and Happy Holiday's to everyone!Tim

Aha...i got it now, thanks for the reply Tim. Believe me i'm happy with REX as is now ,and for those sky and water textures, i always use combination of add ons, so they are not big problem to me. But i'm glad that you and your crew are aware of those problems. Great support, and great product thanks again!Happy holiday's !!!

[Dillon 2,197]

My fault... I didn't mean ASA, I thought of its predecessor with loads of skysets included. I'm using ASA as well, upper vis limit 50 nm, but nevertheless I get this darn line together with "Tropics" sky texture. Not a big deal if ASA provides the "correct" weather. But just yesterday when I tried out Dillon's suggestion my first thought was "well, not bad"... All of a sudden - sharp horizon.The freeware textures for soft horizons are really good. Especially for dawn and dusk.

Where can I find the utility for Soft Horizons, what's the 'official' name to search for?

[Guest FredGherkin]

Where can I find the utility for Soft Horizons, what's the 'official' name to search for?

softhr07.ziphttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=...&CatID=root

[Dillon 2,197]

softhr07.ziphttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=...&CatID=root

Looks like this over writes some of the REX sky textures. I wouldn't have minded changing things before I found the REX 'Tropics' sky theme, now I'm hooked (actually I wouldn't have changed my Activesky texture as well as that was all but perfect. I forget what sky option I chose so long ago in the Activesky 6.5 stable, just the same I haven't looked back up until now). Using the REX 'Tropic' texture in conjunction with ASA hasn't posed a problem with the horizon yet. Either way REX might want to update their sky textures to fix this problem as some are really bad in this area (and some actually over do it like the 'Touch of Smog' theme). I've now got the water effects working and they look great but seem to cause slower performance in FS9. I'm curious to hear what others have to say about the 'Tropics' sky texture and the drain on performance from the water effects. Zinertek and REX's water options are a hard choice to choose from. If it weren't for the drain on performance I'd take REX's option for awhile especially after seeing it during dawn and dusk hours...

[Guest FredGherkin]

I've now got the water effects working and they look great but seem to cause slower performance in FS9. I'm curious to hear what others have to say about the 'Tropics' sky texture and the drain on performance from the water effects.

Can't help you out there. If it slows down your machine, it certainly would on my 6 year old one. Wouldn't even try it, although none of the REX textures up to this point have caused a slow down.